When Your Mood Interferes with Your Reading (and How to Fix It)

Hiiii, it's me, grumpy guts again. I'm still very much in need of coffee and comfort reads, as outlined in my last post, and without delving into too many details about why (I mean, you know why), I'll just come out and say: I'm in a reading rut and a blogging slum. I've fallen and I can't get up. And that happens! Blogging is the kind of hobby that draws so much from you, relying on that endless well of fangirlishness energy deeeep insiiide your fangirl sooooul. Like any form of writing, it comes from your brain and heart, and--surprise!--your brain and heart are part of you. So when YOU are affected by something, your writing gets affected.

I haven't been able to muster the energy to write any posts this week (besides this one. Um. Obviously). I noodled a bit with some reviews, but they were do depressingly limp that I just couldn't bring myself to hit "post". So I thought, fine. A blogging break may be just what the doctor ordered. It'll five me a chance to catch up on my reading.

TROLOLOLOL. Yeah... no.

As it turns out, reading is ALSO a hobby hugely affected by your mood! Who'da thunk? (I have no idea who to properly grammar that grammarily improper sentence.) I described reading a few weeks ago as shooting, casting, and directing your own little mini mind movie, and it turns out, my mental director and cinematographer are on strike. I pick up a perfectly good book, and the set decorator goes, "Eh... constructing that setting is too much effort." I try to get into a scene, and my directer just shrugs and nudges me to go back to binge-watching Gilmore Girls.

SHUT UP MIND-DIRECTOR

(My head is possibly a very strange place.)

So I am officially in both a blogging and reading slump, which, if you know anything about blogging or logic, you will realize is not conducive to running a reading blog. SO WHAT DO I DO ABOUT THIS EMERGENCY?

Try re-reading. I talked about this in my coffee and comfort reads post, but one of the few things I was able to pick up in the mist of my brain-fogged funk was an old favorite that I know by heart. It was like only half-reading, and I skipped the bits I didn't want and gloried in the kiss scenes bits I did.

Head for the backlist. When I'm high on reading mojo, there's nothing I love more that conquering my blogging TBR pile. I basically award myself a mental medal these days (because it's been crazybusy in Gillianland) if I review a review book before release date. Sadly, ruts do not respond to pressure, so to get out of one, I take for a spin the glorious unreads hanging out on my shelfs that I always say I want to get to but never truly do. Fabulously no pressure, and you won't have to write any awkward emails if you DNF.

Fluff. Nothing, and I mean nothing, cures my soul like a good fluffy read. My true love, genre-wise, is high fantasy, and while excellent high fantasy can also heals the holes in my heart (or, um, something that doesn't sound like a very cheesy country song), that comes with high potential for BRUTAL SADS. But fluff? Oh, I need the fluff. I need the banter and funnies and kissing and romps and lightness and sunshine and happy endings.

Let myself be rutted. This reading rut is so heavily affected by something external that I have no control over. I have a feeling it won't truly be banished until I feel better. So sometimes it truly does help to take a break from the books. Don't force it. If the reading ain't happenin', it ain't happenin', you know? And I'm pretty sure that, if I don't read antyhing for a little while, I'll start to crave some books. It's like taking a vacation. Sure, you're enjoying the time off for a bit, but soom you get homesick. And books are home.

I'm sorry that was so sappy I don't even know who I am

How do you guys deal with blogging and reading ruts? Are you feeling the fatigue and sadness that I'm feeling? How do you get out of it?